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Wi-owner

Police Commissioner Owen Ellington says the police and military are determined to dismantle and degrade the criminal network of Tivoli Gardens strongman Christopher "Dudus" Coke.

Speaking at Friday's press conference on the operation in the West Kingston community, Commissioner Ellington made it clear that the security forces have the capacity to smash the criminal network which has been spreading its influence across the country and abroad.

“Five days ago there were concerns in this country as to whether the security forces had the capacity and the will to go inside of Tivoli Gardens, disrupt Christopher Coke in his stronghold and arrest him. Today he is on the run. We will catch him. We will execute that warrant and he will face justice,” Commissioner Ellington said.

“In the meantime, we will pursue a larger operation of degrading the criminal capacity of a gang which has for many, many years held a community hostage and threatened the security of citizens across Jamaica. So we are making tremendous success, it has never been like this before for law enforcement in Jamaica,”

He said Christopher Coke is still on the island and a manhunt continues for him and his cronies.

He disclosed that most of the men detained in the operation are not residents of Tivoli Gardens.

“The best intelligence we have is that Coke is still within the jurisdiction. Kirkland Heights is part of several coordinated operations to get Christopher Coke and the third one has to do with a number of individuals who we have found to be wanted by law enforcement,”

“Twenty are definitely wanted, five to be charged, a significant number of these individuals have no given address in Tivoli Gardens, none whatsoever even though they were found there. We will be checking them out across our intelligence databases right across Jamaica to see if they are wanted by other police divisions,” he said.